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Research in the Aston Brain Centre

Research in the Aston Brain Centre is focussed on five key themes:

  • Understanding developmental disorders across the life span
  • Signal processing and computational modelling
  • Perceptual systems
  • Cellular neurophysiology
  • Clinical neurophysiology

Aston University already has an internationally recognised track record of funded research in these areas.

Central to all five themes is the ability to measure and interpret changes in brain activity with millisecond-level time resolution. We do this using tissue samples in-vitro and whole-head in-vivo measurements with MEG.
Professor Paul Furlong shares his vision for the Aston Brain Centre which will build on existing research and have a particular focus on brain development in children.

Recent studies have shown that MEG estimates of electrical brain activity are directly comparable with local field potentials measured in animals (Hall et al., 2005) known to be both critical to healthy brain function and atypical in abnormal brain function.  It is vital to examine how patterns of cortical electrical activity co-vary with behavioural measures in humans during typical and atypical development.  The outcome will improve the ability to diagnose, track and treat common developmental disabilities, through better understanding of the relationships between brain function and behaviour and the genetic and environmental context in which they occur.